Indigistory was first created in 2012 by Gordon Henry, Ph.D. (enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation) and Ellen Cushman, Ph.D., with the goal of bringing together knowledge and resources from social sciences, arts, and technology to support the creation of digital stories by American Indian community members from across Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Awarded the 2017 Michigan State University Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Creative Activities, Indigistory began as a collaborative partnership with several community organizations. Due to some unfortunate circumstances that included a change in the leadership of the Native American Institute, work on Indigistory slowly came to an end.

Understanding the importance of collecting and preserving the stories of the Anishinaabe people and communities, Kevin Leonard, Ph.D., reached out to Henry about reviving Indigistory shortly after he was appointed interim director of the NAI in 2022. Henry was interested, and discussions about the when and how of restarting Indigistory began. The planning team grew to include Kehli Henry, Ph.D., Emily Henry, and undergraduate student Tayden Davis.

The group applied for funding to conduct Indigistory with a tribal community through the MSU Creating Inclusive Excellent Grant (CIEG) in the spring 2024 and was awarded over $14,000 to purchase new recording equipment and video-editing software and pay staff.

The team traveled to the Ziibiwing Center in Mt. Pleasant August 19-20 to collect stories (Dibaajimoowinan) from Native American community members from throughout the area. Approximately 10 stories were collected from community members, which with their permission, may be shown to the group sometime in November of 2024.

Our hope is to continue to grow Indigistory, with the next stop being on campus where we will work to train our Native students and faculty on story creation. We also hope to expand Indigistory to other Tribal communities throughout the state.